How To...
At Rainbow Press we strive to give our customers the best results in the least amount of time. This page provides information to help get your printed materials through our shop as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The quoted printing prices are based on the assumption that your files will output directly to our imagesetters with no changes. If we have to open your files and make changes or corrections to print a file, you will be charged for that service. You can avoid extra charges and delays by prepping your files correctly for digital output.
We require a hard copy (laser print or fax) of your job before processing your files.
Topics: Supported Applications | Preparing Your Files | Fonts | Placed Graphics | Sending Files to Us | Document Sizes | Images | Photos from Digital Cameras | Things to Avoid with Pagemaker
Supported Applications
Supported applications are Adobe PageMaker 6.5, QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator up to 9.0, Adobe Photoshop. Corel files can be processed if the file is exported for Abobe Illustrator in curves for Mac.
Preparing Your Files
Make your files clean and simple. The simpler the file, the quicker the job can be output. This means a faster turnaround for you.
Set your document size to equal the trim size of your finished piece. Trim marks are not required since our imaging software generates them based on your exact document size. Extend bleed by 1/8" (.125") beyond the trim on all sides. This applies to every file with bleed including business cards.
Adjust the panels on Tri-fold brochures so the first folded panel is 1/16" shorter than the other two for 80 lb. text, and 1/8" shorter for 100 lb. text and cover weight papers. Folding templates are available at ftp.copycraft.com.
Trapping should be set on all files to avoid white gaps in printing where colors meet. In Adobe Illustrator, overprint black type on color backgrounds. Standard trapping is .35 points. In Adobe PageMaker, select Trapping Options in the Preferences menu and click the box by "Enable trapping for publication" before saving your file. Use the default settings elsewhere. In QuarkXPress, set the trapping value to .144 and check default trapped items.
Include a copy of every placed image in your document including scans, photos, clipart and placed eps graphics. Please do not embed images into your document. We can only troubleshoot linked images.
Delete any linking files that are no longer needed in your file. Avoid covering graphics, images or type with white boxes. Those items are still there and slow down the processing of your files. Do not rename a linked file after saving the main file.
Placing a graphic into a file, then importing this file into another is called layering. Layering files more than 2 deep is not recommended. Using several programs when layering compounds the problem.
Fonts
Making a font bold or italic by applying bold or italic in the application menu could cause a type substitution and result in additional film charges. Select the specific font face you want to use instead.
To ensure your files will be output correctly, and on time, please include a copy of all the fonts used in your files, including fonts used in linked eps files unless they are converted to curves.
Include both the screen (suitcase) and postscript fonts.
Rainbow Press has a large library of fonts, but your job will be delayed if we do not have all the fonts you used in your files.
Please do not use Multiple-Master fonts, and avoid TrueType fonts. We recommend using Adobe postscript fonts only.
Placed Graphics
When placing scanned images such as photographs into a page layout document please:
- Do not embed or save your graphics in the layout program file you are using. If there is a problem with the graphic we will not be able to fix it. Send us your layout file and all of the placed graphic files separately. Letting the software link your files rather than embedding them gives us greater control of the output and it saves disk space for you and us.
- If you save your images as TIFF files, turn LZW compression off. When saving files as EPS, select binary and turn DCS off. We do not accept formats other than TIFF or EPS.
- Convert RGB files to CMYK mode before placing the image! RGB files print black and white when processed on a CMYK imagesetter.
- Preferred dpi for all image files is 300 ppi. 72 ppi files are unacceptable for 300 line screen.
- Crop and rotate your images in Photoshop rather than the layout file to optimize processing. Mask the rotated image in your layout file as needed.
- When placing a graphic element in Adobe PageMaker, choose "No" when prompted to include a complete copy in the publication. This will link your files rather than embed them.
Sending Your Files to Us
Customers must furnish disks for digital files. Sorry, no loaners are available. We currently accept files on the following media: Iomega zip 100 and 250; CD Rom; Macintosh and IBM diskettes.
You may also send files directly to us via the internet by attaching them to e-mail or by uploading them directly to our FTP site. Protect the files you intend to send via internet by stuffing them. Macintosh users should compress all files into one file using StuffIt. Windows users should compress files into one file using WinZip. The utilities are shareware and can be obtained on site like www.shareware.com and www.download.com. When emailing files less than 1 megabyte, send to brenda@rainbow-midland.com. For files larger than 1 megabyte please use the FTP site or furnish a disk.
Document Sizes
The standard document size is 8.5x11. Since this page size is so common, we have layouts set up to quickly run this size. However, we often run many different page sizes, and can handle a document up to 19 x 25 on the press. Our imagesetter can only handle single sizes up to 14” wide, so anything over this would have to be handled by our film-stripping department.
Images
In order for images to look their best, they should be scanned at 300 dpi or higher. A common misconception is that, if an image is, for example, at 72 dpi, one can simply enlarge it in Photoshop. Not so. A good rule of thumb is to remember that you can always reduce an image, but you can never enlarge an image. The most we like to enlarge an image before it begins to look pixelated is 120% (and even this can be risky).
Images should either be in EPS or TIFF format. While we can accept images in JPG, PICT, GIF, and WMF (among others), the first two formats are much easier to work with. If you feel you may need us to adjust an image, it might be a good idea to send us a copy of the Photoshop (PSD) image in layers. Images must be in CMYK format to be printed. However, to save disk space, some customers send their files RGB, but recognize that these files must eventually be converted to CMYK, and the way the images appear on screen may not represent how they will appear in the final output.
Duotones and Spot Colors can sometimes be tricky, so here are some suggestions:
When creating a duotone in Photoshop, make sure that the names of the colors used match exactly the names of the spot colors in your document. Especially if you will be using a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator files with spot colors, it is vital that all names for spot colors be exactly the same in all files (including capitalization, if any). When you select the spot color in your document, it must use a different screen value than black (or the other spot color of the duotone) in order for the image to print clearly. To accommodate this:
In Quark 4, go to "Edit:Colors...", select the spot color and click the "Edit" button, then under the "Halftone:" menu select from Cyan, Magenta, or Yellow.
Because it is necessary to create Postscripts in Pagemaker in order to output documents to film, duotones have been unsuccessful. To accommodate this problem, it is necessary to create the duotone image using one of the primary printing colors: Cyan, Magenta, or Yellow. For example, if the image you are creating in Photoshop is supposed to use black and Pantone 142 CV, you would replace the color "Pantone 142 CV" with Cyan. This must also be done throughout the document, so that whatever object is to be Pantone 142 CV becomes Cyan. This will give us the linescreen angle we need in order to properly print the duotone. When the file gets to the presses, we simply use the Pantone ink wherever the Cyan shows up.
If an image or page will contain large areas of black, it is best to use what is called Full Black. Its profile is Cyan-65, Magenta-53, Yellow-51, Black-100. This will produce a nice, rich black in printed documents.
Photos from Digital Cameras
Digital cameras take pictures at a resolution of 72 dpi. Because printed materials look best at 300 dpi, be aware that any image created by a digital camera will need to be reduced by 76% in order to look good in a printed piece. So, for example, if you need an image to be printed at a size of 3"x5", your camera must be set to 12.5"x20.83" (900x1500 pixels) in order to accomplish this. An easy way to figure this is to take your target picture size and divide it by 0.24. For example, to achieve a final image size of 8.75x11.25, do the following:
8.75/0.24=36.46
11.25/0.24=46.88
So the image size needed would be 36.46x46.88 (2625x3375 pixels). By the way, 1 inch = 72 pixels.
If you are unsure of your photo, send us the original pictures as taken by the camera without crops or adjustments. We will process it to maintain the highest quality allowed by your file.
Things to avoid with Pagemaker
Pagemaker has a color called "Paper" which is often used to create white or "reversed" type. However, due to our imposition software, the color "Paper" is not dependable. Instead, create a color in Pagemaker called "white," make it CMYK (with all percentages at 0%), and make sure it is not set to overprint. On a similar note, the color "Black" in Pagemaker occasionally refuses to overprint, especially over images. To avoid this problem, create another color, perhaps called "Black Overprint," set it for C=0, M=0, Y=0, K=100, and set it to overprint. These two steps save you money by removing much of the time spent by our prepress department reworking and resaving files.
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